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Today is the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, who was shot and killed on April 4, 1968 by James Earl Ray.

Reviled by the right as a Communist, lauded by the right as a Republican, Martin Luther King in my opinion is among the greatest Americans in history. One can see how difficult it is to take on the Rush Limbaughs, the Glen Becks, the Fox News, and the Tea Partiers, but in effect that's what King did in the early 1960s by standing up to the white right wing (and that's a fact). He led a peaceful Civil Rights movement that won support around world and around the United States.

Forging good relations with JFK and LBJ, in many ways he was the one most responsible for passing the momentous Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though that victory caused the Dixiecrats to flock to Reagan after his heartfelt appeal to their racism, the legacy of Civil Rights remains with us today. Our nation truly changed thanks to Civil Rights in ways that have benefited women, gays, Latinos, the disabled, the majority, as well as the arts, food, and entertainment. It's hard to describe how much better our country is today than it was in the Leave it to Beaver era.

Today is the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, who was shot and killed on April 4, 1968 by James Earl Gray.

Forging good relations with JFK and LBJ, in many ways he was the one most responsible for passing the momentous Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though that victory caused the Dixiecrats to flock to Reagan after his heartfelt appeal to their racism, the legacy of Civil Rights remains with us today. Our nation truly changed thanks to Civil Rights in ways that have benefited women, gays, Latinos, the disabled, the majority, as well as the arts, food, and entertainment. It's hard to describe how much better our country is today than it was in the Leave it to Beaver era.

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While the nation truly has benefited from the Civil Rights Act, I wonder how much of that was due to sympathy after JFK's assassination, that Congress wanted to fulfill his goal.
Secondly it is a huuuuuuuuge stretch to to link MLK and Reagan. The Dixiecrats flocked to George Wallace in 1968 and he was a leading contender in 1972 before being shot. There was Nixon, Watergate and Vietnam in the 12 years between Dr King's assassination and Reagan's election.

Today is the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, who was shot and killed on April 4, 1968 by James Earl Ray.

Reviled by the right as a Communist, lauded by the right as a Republican, Martin Luther King in my opinion is among the greatest Americans in history. One can see how difficult it is to take on the Rush Limbaughs, the Glen Becks, the Fox News, and the Tea Partiers, but in effect that's what King did in the early 1960s by standing up to the white right wing (and that's a fact). He led a peaceful Civil Rights movement that won support around world and around the United States.

Forging good relations with JFK and LBJ, in many ways he was the one most responsible for passing the momentous Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though that victory caused the Dixiecrats to flock to Reagan after his heartfelt appeal to their racism, the legacy of Civil Rights remains with us today. Our nation truly changed thanks to Civil Rights in ways that have benefited women, gays, Latinos, the disabled, the majority, as well as the arts, food, and entertainment. It's hard to describe how much better our country is today than it was in the Leave it to Beaver era.

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MLK was undeniably one of the greatest Americans ever. We should honor his courage, leadership and values.

Too bad you had to ruin your praise by inserting anti-right rhetoric...very sad on your part Patters to use MLK's memory to spout your own bias.

While the nation truly has benefited from the Civil Rights Act, I wonder how much of that was due to sympathy after JFK's assassination, that Congress wanted to fulfill his goal.
Secondly it is a huuuuuuuuge stretch to to link MLK and Reagan. The Dixiecrats flocked to George Wallace in 1968 and he was a leading contender in 1972 before being shot. There was Nixon, Watergate and Vietnam in the 12 years between Dr King's assassination and Reagan's election.

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It was Nixon who started the Republicans' southern strategy, but it was Reagan who really succeeded. Reagan raised race issues from the start of his campaign and directly appealed to the white Dixiecrats. As I've posted many other times, Reagan started his election campaign in Philadelphia, MS (which is where 3 civil rights workers were murdered) and spoke there about states rights, which back then was code for segregation.

MLK was undeniably one of the greatest Americans ever. We should honor his courage, leadership and values.

Too bad you had to ruin your praise by inserting anti-right rhetoric...very sad on your part Patters to use MLK's memory to spout your own bias.

Shame on you!

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I disagree with you, PR. MLK was a fighter who until his dying day understood that there are right wing elements in this country who would love to take away the equality that he fought for. Even in this forum, there are those who oppose anti-discrimination laws and programs to address the damage that 2 centuries of discrimination left behind. We do not honor his death by forgetting his enemies remain.

The older I get, the more impressive MLK's achievement become... you think about the things he was able to accomplish by his 30s. Amazing. The time for change had come, but who's to say -- given the racism Reagan could still tap into, and that the teabaggers still find motivation in today -- that the voice of the minority as regards minority rights would ever be listened to, without the moral conviction and power of oratory Dr. King exhibited? As King would tell you, he was heavily influenced by Ghandi... who exercised the exact same principle of steadfastly standing in truth (satyagraha), appealing to the basic decency of the "oppressor" himself.

What King did was say "God bless America" in a way that meant something, and America, white and black both, answered "Amen." The changes that came from that are everywhere in America today. There is nowhere that nothing has changed -- there are places where less has been gained from the change, but that's another story.

Today is the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, who was shot and killed on April 4, 1968 by James Earl Ray.

Reviled by the right as a Communist, lauded by the right as a Republican, Martin Luther King in my opinion is among the greatest Americans in history. One can see how difficult it is to take on the Rush Limbaughs, the Glen Becks, the Fox News, and the Tea Partiers, but in effect that's what King did in the early 1960s by standing up to the white right wing (and that's a fact). He led a peaceful Civil Rights movement that won support around world and around the United States.

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It's really pathetic how you can't pay tribute to one of our nation's great leaders without turning it into an ultra-partisan left-is-good versus right-is-evil matter.

This post shows you don't have the first clue what Martin Luther King's message was about.

This piece by lewrockwell, a rightwing website, denounces King and ironically lists reasons why King was such a great man (because he opposed rightwing ideals like perpetual war and free market insanity):

King of course was a great opponent of the free economy. In a speech in front of his staff in 1966 he said:

You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry… Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong…with capitalism… There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a Democratic Socialism.

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As all the previous myths show, King’s views were hardly conservative. If this was not enough, it is worth noting what King said about the two most prominent postwar American conservative politicians, Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater.

King accused Barry Goldwater of "Hitlerism." He believed that Goldwater advocated a "narrow nationalism, a crippling isolationism, and a trigger-happy attitude." On domestic issues he felt that "Mr. Goldwater represented an unrealistic conservatism that was totally out of touch with the realities of the twentieth century." King said that Goldwater’s positions on civil rights were "morally indefensible and socially suicidal."

King said of Reagan, "When a Hollywood performer, lacking distinction even as an actor, can become a leading war hawk candidate for the presidency, only the irrationalities induced by war psychosis can explain such a turn of events."

Also, I don't remember MLK saying "God Damn America" like the preacher, spiritual guide and confidante of a certain politician we are all familiar with.

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Reverend "god damn america" Wright and his whole hateful, despicable congregation stand for everything that Martin Luther King was against "Hate And Racism"

This president we now have sat in that Hate Filled Racist so called church and listened to his "Uncle Jeremiah's" racist hate sh!t for twenty long years, the Racist Reverend baptized the presidents children.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, we don't want to talk about this.

Now:
Imagine GW Bush spending one hour, not twenty years just one hour in a "White Racist Church" oh Jesus.

So let's get this straight, Harry. You believe that some unnamed MLK supporter is trashing Jesus. Wolfie evidently believes that the most salient feature of MLK is that he wasn't Jeremiah Wright.

However, nobody in this thread said a word against Jesus, nor was Rev. Wright mentioned.

It doesn't take much, however, to turn up the gospel of social justice in King's writings and preachings -- a subject right wingers here have recently posted enthusiastically against.

Not to mention Phokus' apt quote from King regarding Democratic Socialism, something the right wing associates with all manner of bad bad evil -- not that anything approaching said philosophy is actually out there on our current political landscape ("but if the tax rate of the very wealthy goes up 1%, isn't that the same thing as Leninism...?")

You guys shouldn't bother to fake a celebration of the man's life. Nobody's convinced by the attempt at coopting him, and every day except today you're all slobbering and gushing -- to use our currently en vogue vocabulary -- about some crackpot web site cataloging his human failings.

Why bother, guys? At every turn you spew your racist, xenophobic, and islamaphobic venom, precisely the opposite of what the good Rev. King stood for. The fact is that this board at times is virtually indistinguishable from the idiotic "white power" hate outlets that SPLC tracks. It is somewhat gratifying that we decided to do without our recent "I'm more antisemitic than you guys" character... but really. Look around you, look around at the opinions you guys spout, and tell me you really believe you're supporting King's legacy. It's a joke. That's why, imperfect champions that they are, the Dems have historically been the overwhelming choice for African Americans since the 70s. Which party was more racist when is somewhat immaterial for modern purposes; what's important is that Johnson fought a war on poverty, and Reagan began a Republican War on the Poor. In that minorities (and women, and children,) are disproportionately poor, that tends to take on the cast of a war on minorities, women, and youth.

Minorities, women, and youth have every incentive to vote for people who do not think they are America's enemies.

So cut the crap and stop pretending the so-evident animus among the right just isn't there, for one day out of the year. Half of you guys are busy writing revisionist history claiming King to be overrated when it's not April 4. The only difference between the right wing in 1980 and the right wing in 2010 on this subject is a U2 song, and a generation of young republicans learning what reaction to said song got you laid in college.

I celebrate Kings life for his courage and dream. I really do think he knew he was going to die for his cause but that didn't slow him down a bit. I'm still impressed how he saw a future where people were completely color blind and judged each other only by the content of their character. I was impressed that he never advocated anything but peaceful means to draw attention to the cause. I wish he were still around today to put some of the same class, civility back into the movement.

While the nation truly has benefited from the Civil Rights Act, I wonder how much of that was due to sympathy after JFK's assassination, that Congress wanted to fulfill his goal.

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MLK was a much bigger influence than people want to remember, when my daughter was in high school in the early nineties.. was appalled that the relatively new textbook on american history.. had one paragraph on MLK and his influence.. you will not find the answer in books, he was a huge influence.. three great movements merged for a while women's rights, anti war and civil rights.. he crossed a lot of lines and appealed to a lot of people..

MLK was not a "15 minute of fame guy"... his march on the Lincoln Memorial(1963).. was a very significant event... maybe you might want to review a history of him.. he did a lot and laid a lot of groundwork. There were so many events in a very short period of time..he started with the Montgomery Boycott of 1955 and was very active in the following years.. Albany Movement, Birmingham, Augustine, Selma, March on DC 1963, Bloody Sunday 1965, Chicago, Poor Peoples Campaign, Viet Nam Resisitance.. there was a whole lot of stuff in between, during those days he made the news almost daily both on TV and in the print media.. he wrote books and gave a lot of speeches..

JFK was an influence, but over a million people on the mall also had a tremendous influence.. along with a cooperative Prez.. LBJ...